Over the past 25 years, Green Chemistry has provided a unique forum for the publication of innovative research on the development of alternative sustainable technologies, efficient utilisation of resources and the concomitant minimisation of waste. We are delighted to bring together a very special issue containing articles by members of the green chemistry community as well as past and present Green Chemistry Board members, to mark and celebrate our first 25 years.
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Among the contributions to this themed collection is a Paper on quantifying the level of correlation and linkages between five mass- and energy-based metrics and 16 LCA indicator scores by leveraging data for over 700 chemical manufacturing processes (DOI: 10.1039/D4GC00394B)
Synthetic chemicals are essential to everyday life, supporting everything from food security and health care to electronics and clothing. Scientists and engineers are constantly searching for greener production routes, but designing them requires methods to quantify their environmental impact. This article evaluates different metrics of varying complexity, identifying their pros and cons. |
Read our interview with Javier Pérez-Ramírez and Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez
How would you set this article in a wider context?
Global chemical demand is projected to grow by 40% this decade, while the chemical industry faces mounting pressure to reduce its substantial environmental footprint. We highlight the critical role of metrics in assessing environmental impacts and emphasise the importance of a holistic approach to guide prioritisation and more informed decision-making.
What is the motivation behind this work?
Overall, our goal is to promote the broad adoption of quantitative metrics in research. The global aspiration of the community to make the world a better place through chemistry often relies on narrow or simplified indicators, leading to unclear environmental benefits. We addressed this by using more comprehensive and standardised approaches across a wide range of key chemical processes to understand the differences in the information they provide.
What aspects of this work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about it?
We’re particularly excited about how comprehensive sustainability metrics like life cycle assessments (LCA) can rank chemical processes based on diverse environmental impacts, going beyond the CO2 footprint. Our results indicate that different methods present distinct advantages and trade-offs across various environmental criteria. Current challenges include the limited availability and uncertainty of openly accessible data, as well as the need to bring the experimental and systems engineering communities closer in the coming years.
What is the next step? What work is planned?
We conclude from our results that increasing the use of comprehensive LCA in early research stages is key. To address this, we aim to make these environmental analyses more accessible through user-friendly tools. Additionally, we will focus on data standardisation and robust methods for managing data uncertainty, as well as proposing effective schemes for ranking chemicals based on distinct impacts, which remains challenging.
Please describe your journey to becoming part of the Green Chemistry community
We view our journey into the Green Chemistry community as a natural progression of our commitment to making a positive societal impact. Chemistry will play a pivotal role in implementing the sustainable development goals and combating climate change, and we believe that embracing the guiding principles of Green Chemistry is essential for this mission within an interdisciplinary approach.
Why did you choose to publish in Green Chemistry?
We chose Green Chemistry for its unique focus on alternative green technologies and sustained leadership in the field. The themed collection ‘Measuring Green Chemistry: Methods, Models, and Metrics‘ aligns with our focus on quantifying environmental impacts, making it the ideal platform for our study.
What do you think the Green Chemistry journal has done well in the past 25 years, and what do you think are the main challenges our community will face in the next 25 years?
Green Chemistry has been instrumental in uniting a diverse community under a shared philosophy grounded in the Green Chemistry principles and has successfully adapted to the evolving landscape of sustainable chemistry. As mentioned above, one of the major challenges will be achieving the application of standardised metrics in both academic and industrial arenas, for which different stakeholders must collaborate.
